Increasing elephants and escalating conflicts?

BY THARUKA Dissanaike

THERE is a popular billboard that greets visitors entering Colombo
from its northern flank, on the bridge across Kelani River. A boy holds
small picture of an elephant. The father says: "No son, the elephant was
much bigger than that.'

Whatever the advertisement sold I cannot remember, but the
billboard's message was more powerful than the product. Will there be a
day that we don't see elephants in the wild? Will future generations
have only faded photographs to recall the majesty of these animals we
love and enjoy?

Are we looking at a floundering elephant population? Are our elephant
numbers falling because of deforestation and human-elephant conflict?

The popular sentiment and viewpoint would lead to an affirmative
reply. The concern for the elephant's survival, its endangered status,
the threats to its habitat and the protection bestowed upon it by the
State all lead us to think that the population is indeed in decline and
there would be a time in the future that we would face a crunch - a time
when wild elephants would be a rare sight.

Ask the man-on-the-street and many would nod in agreement-elephants
are threatened and in decline.

Even researchers and scientists stand in general agreement that there
is a declining trend in population numbers of elephants- due to the many
stress factors created by human interference in their habitat.

Not everyone, however, subscribes to this viewpoint. Dr. Sarath
Kotagama, one of Sri Lanka's best-known ecologists former Director of
Wildlife and Professor of Environmental Science at the University of
Colombo believes that elephant numbers are on a gaining trend and that
elephant populations are not in any danger of dwindling out in the near
future.

That much is positive news for elephant lovers who may have harboured
doubts of their grandchildren being able to enjoy the sight of wild
elephants. But an increasing population of pachyderms living alongside
an increasing population of humans, competing for the same land resource
does not necessarily spell good news either.

It has led to escalated conflict between the people and elephants in
agricultural areas where demand for land is forcing them to co-exist.

"There is a clearly an increase in the number of elephants from the
1950s to today and the reasons are also quite clear," Dr. Kotagama said
(see Box). "We have been converting forests into agriculture land, and
there has been a heavy bias towards irrigated paddy cultivation.

In effect, we have been providing the elephant with a better habitat
by cutting down dense forests and planting crops, especially paddy,
which are palatable to the animal.

In retrospect, although deforestation had an adverse effect overall,
for the elephants the landscape that replaced the forests was even
better than the forest itself."

The elephant is known as an 'edge' species due to its preference for
a landscape for a landscape that has grasses, scrub, water and
sufficient shade to the dense interior of forests. Through their
agricultural practices, humans create this 'edge'.

Living alongside human habitation, the elephant is drawn to nearby
villages and fields for its dietary requirements - for one, there is
easy access and secondly, it is of high nutritive value. The change in
landscape across the elephant's habitat actually favoured the animal,
and created conditions for it to breed well.

But, Dr. Kotagama reiterates, the change of landscape beyond a
certain point would become unfavourable for elephants. When settlements
become dense and townships come up (Embilipitiya for example) the
elephants move out of such places as the environment becomes lees
hospitable to them.

Breeding well

Regular visitors to sanctuaries and national parks that have
elephants will swear by the high number of babies, juveniles and young
adults in the population. "Random counts have shown that one third of
the population consists of young. This is a very healthy situation, and
there are no immediate concerns of population decrease.

The high number of young can be clearly noticed in good elephant
viewing locations like Uda Walawe or Minneriya tank during dry season.
Across the country, elephants are breeding well and have a healthy
number of young and sub-adult animals.

This is true not only of elephants enjoying an enhanced state of
protection within National Parks and Sanctuaries but of may herds
roaming outside 'protected areas' and subject to harassment and
ill-treatment by the human population sharing their habitat.

"In fact, in the areas with high levels of human-elephant conflict,
elephants appear to be breeding quite virulently, "Dr. Prithiviraj
Fernando said.

We consider the human elephant conflict as being one of the two key
factors that drive down the elephant numbers. But empirical evidence
points to a different scenario.

Although many elephants are killed each year as farmers take guns to
protect their crops and homes from raiding elephants, the herds also
breed well-very well-in areas that are rife with such conflict.
Therefore, overall effect on the population could likely be positive
instead of negative.

"When the elephant's requirements of food and water are provided,
animal numbers will increase, even in a limited space" Dr. Kotagama
explains. "The best example for this is Pinnawela where all the
requirements are met and the animals are breeding very well."

Deforestation and loss of habitat is the other main reason put
forward as causing the decline of the elephant population. Deforestation
is a very real problem in Sri Lanka.- our forest cover today is down to
20% according to official statistics.

At the turn of the century forest cover was over 70% and especially
high in the dry zone which was largely left neglected by colonial
powers. Wet zone elephant habitats were almost totally converted to
profitable plantations and remaining elephants hunted for sport or as
pests.

In the years after independence, deforestation increased in the dry
zone where large irrigation projects and new settlement schemes were
being carved in to the previously neglected landscape.

More and more dry zone jungle came down with the axe to make way for
fields and people. But even as forests declined, the effect on the
elephant population was not altogether negative.

For one, they were no longer being hunted for sport or as
agricultural pests. Secondly, the cleared forests, the chena scrub and
the new paddy cultivations allowed the elephant to expand its habitat to
human areas and increased food availability.

Basically, the pattern of land use that was adopted and heavily
promoted by the state since independence became a boon to the elephants
population, which by the 1950 had been severely depleted due to colonial
attitudes and practises.

As the country ventured more and more into irrigated agriculture,
opening up dry zone areas for settlement and habitation the incidence of
human-elephant conflict also increased since both parties vie for the
same space.

Every week, at least two elephants are killed by farmers defending
their crop. The number of human deaths due to the conflict is not even
on record but believed be over 50 every year. The Department estimates
crop damage to be an astounding Rs. 1.2 billion annually.

"The country's policies and programmes for elephant conservation are
based on the faulty premise that there is a population decline.
Meanwhile, the measures adopted to combat the human-elephant conflict
are ad-hoc and short term," said Dr. Sarath Kotagama.

"There is, therefore a clear need to re-think our strategies for
elephant conservation and also build up a long-term plan to manage the
human-elephant conflict, taking into consideration the outcomes current
research."

Elephant population trends

We believe that at the turn of the last century- in 190- there were
around 10,000 elephants in Sri Lanka. However, this figure is
hypothetical and based on an estimate done by C. W. Nicholas in 1953.

The official record keeping of the Department of wild Life began in
the 1950s and at this time, there appears to have been a very steep
decline in numbers.

The 1951 estimate is 100-1500 animals in the island. By 1956 this
figure drops even lower to 750-800 animals as reported in the department
of Wildlife Conservation administrative reports.

During this period, the government still encouraged the killing of
elephants as pests.

But despite this population collapse, by the 1960s the elephant
numbers were on the rise again. C. E. Norris of the then Wild Life
Protection Society in a 1967 report shows that population growth was
favourable.

By the late 1960s, estimates point to populations over 1500 and some
even top 2000. Since then there have been many studies by various
experts and institutions. But newer estimates done during the last two
decades point to population of 3000 and over. The latest estimate by the
DWLC puts the figure at an all- time high of 5000.

This trend challenges the popular notion of elephant population
decline. Although we are far from the assumed population of 10,000
animals of 1900, elephant numbers have shown a trend of increase from
the 1950s not a decline as popularly believed.